Another 21 oct'11
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
chapter 5
Odin snorted with a closure sound as the Darque Lady took her seat again, her husband tried to call out to her but his voice failed him, and she ignored him all the same, already prepared of hearing the consequence of her faults.
"So, M'lady...-" Odin sounded like he was still curious, and she knew what his question would be.
"I will never answer that question, Commander. Even if you say that the person you're asking for would never be involved in this mess; I've promised that-person that I will take that baby as my own child, and so that meant that that-person compelled to sever the connection with that baby." Darque Lady said calmly, staring down at the table; her commitment was unwavering.
"Hnnnnnnh... I was just curious, actually..." Odin muttered, then arched his shoulders. "Well, if you say so, then it shouldn't be my business to pry in that matter. What I'm going to ask of you now is how much you do feel you're obliged to repent for this mess." Odin glanced at the two young Lords too.
"...Sister-in-Law, I will take the responsibility for this-"
"Shut up, Frigg!" The Lady raised her hardened voice and turned her glare at Roude Lord, daring him to try and take pity on her.
"I launched the first attack...!" Darque Lord gave in. "Friggurd was only defending his land from my men. I'm not suitable to be a ruler... moreover a father..." the last words was said silently as if he said them to himself.
"Wait, Husband...-"
"That's a fact, Ellemia...!" he smirked at his wife's bewildered face. "So, Commander; if you take me to the Palace for punishment, my seat will be empty, and The Court of my seat wouldn't try to find me another wife even if they know the hearsay about my wife's condition..." he paused, glancing at his wife's paled caught face; "...and this land should be united once again into one under the rule of my father's blood. That's the ideal summation of this whole matters, is it not?"
The Roude Lord frowned in dislike; "What's this? You're trying to act like a wise man all of a sudden?". 'My father's blood' was not the same as 'my brother', that he knew, for being the target of his big brother's allusive degrading words for life.
Darque Lord glared at him with popping veins; "I'm saying you're father's son too, so The Court wouldn't have any right saying you couldn't take the Lord's seat over my land, too, you womanizer idiot!" he admitted with barred teeth but adding the last parts were easier to let out.
"Khhh!" Roude Lord gritted his teeth at the last words he got, but a little part of his heart realized that his half-blood brother acknowledged him as an equal, which probably much harder on his big brother's side instead of his.
"I will never take pity from you...!" he accused with poisonous glare.
"And you dare take my caring for you as an insult and slap it back on my face-!" Darque Lord showed his haughty dislike over his half younger brother openly again, and seemingly ready for another war.
Odin kept his lips thinned and glanced at the Lady; surely this was not in any way the suitable atmosphere to raise a child. For some reason he felt sorry for the woman for even making herself be the wall between those -idiotic Lords- brothers for seemingly a long time now, and his kind heart pushed his irritation back a little.
The baby cooed as his demon entered the living room with a tray of three cups of water. Odin stared without a word as he put one cup in front of each person on the table then pulled back and stood behind him.
"Alright, as seemingly each of you now want to take responsibility for this war..." Odin began, "I'll leave it to Fates who should be the most responsible and who'd take the consequence for it."
All three pairs of eyes stared at him with surprised imploring stares.
Odin smirked.
The baby cooed facing at the demon, ignoring its 'parents'.
"So, in one of those cups there should be the cursed-water-of-Repentance..." Odin continued glancing apathetically at the surprised faces staring him.
"...Repentance?" the Lady muttered.
"That cursed-water will cast down punishment according to the scale of one's fault; or guilt for that matter...!" Odin glanced at the paling Darque Lady.
"So..." Odin smirked in enjoyment, "If anyone of you thought that either one of you was guiltier than themselves, they're allowed to ask that person to switch their cups... either to save that person or to save themselves from their own guilt." he paused waiting the weight of his words to sink in into the people's minds, enjoying the different grades of paling colors slowly covered their faces.
"Thus, I invite you to drink the water my demon had prepared...!" Odin almost chuckled outright, though it was the baby's happy laughter as it tried to reach out to his demon which gave the final impact.
Three faces stared him with fright, and words were lost to them. Odin chuckled evilly in his sadistic mind; his demon recognized the pleasure wafting from his owner and said nothing.
The three people snapped their faces at each other, trying to measure their past faults and wrongdoings, failing miserably to decide who was guiltier than whom.
"...Si... Sister, I'll drink your cup too so you don't have-" Roude Lord said in trembling voice.
"I'll take mine and halves of their cups...!" the Lady cut in a blow of breath, though she knew she couldn't save her beloved people but she thought at least she'd be able to burden halve of their curse if it were in their cups.
The Darque Lord knocked his cup over and watched the content flowed and spread on the wooden table.
"Dear...!" His wife called out to him in anxiety.
"This is ridiculous...!" the Darque Lord turned his angry face at Odin; "I said I'll come with you to the Palace to atone for my sins, for what more reasons do you want to drag my family down...?"
Roude Lord's head snapped at him hearing that admission; "Now we're family-?"
"YOU'RE NOT MY BROTHER...!" the Darque Lord stood and flung the other two cups in a sweep. The Lady jerked as the water splashed at her, not because of fear for the curse but because what she thought she couldn't take the water in place of her husband anymore.
The Roude Lord's face was wet with the dripping water, but his eyes widened in shock because of the straightforward rejection said to his face.
"You're supposed to be a lowlife of a slave-boy dragging his feet on the street if my father hadn't taken a liking to your mother! How come you're better than me in everything without making as much effort as I did? You put my mother's grave to shame and divided my country in two and stole my people's trust and turned it against me, SO FOR ONCE LET ME DO SOMETHING THAT YOU COULDN'T DO AND SHUT UP ABOUT IT!"
"Dear Husband...!" the Lady instantly ran to his side and covered him with her embrace, her tears were flowing; as the Darque Lord tried to compose his hard breathing down he realized he was so enraged he cried.
Enraged... or despairing.
Perhaps both, he couldn't decide.
The Lady sniffled, "Commander, please, let me atone for all this and forgive my dearest ones-..." she pleaded with all her heart at the Commander but was stopped short as another set of three cups of water was presented on the table by the demon.
She stared at the demon with shocked disbelieving eyes; she thought he'd showed some compassion back at the kitchen, but perhaps it was just his obligatory task, anyway.
"This man is using me way over my value, humans. It's just fresh water to cool down your throats." the demon said flatly without staring at anyone's eyes.
Odin waited for a couple of seconds before chuckling in pleasure; then he dragged another chair and sat, ignorantly going to put the baby to sit on the puddle of water on the table. The demon grabbed the baby by the clothes and hurriedly pulled Odin's cloak end to wipe the table before they had to struggle with changing the baby's diaper again. The man didn't care less about his wet cloak, as long as it wasn't from the baby...
"Now, I ask you..." Odin started again, "Why did each of you afraid to drink that water in every cup? I thought I said it was only one cup filled with the cursed-water?"
A few breaths span of pause. "So by now you all have realized that this is not one person's wrongdoing?"
"That's why I said-...!" the two Lords surprisingly said together. Odin held his hand up to stop them.
"To make atonement for your sins to the Palace?" Odin smirked mockingly, "Are you sure that's the ones you should be atoning your sins to?"
"By far, the Palace only suffered endlessly-irritating news about your useless war, and some fresh-goods distribution got delayed on the way and the people had to buy not-so-fresh goods in the capital's market and our whiny-General complaining non-stop about his salads smelled like rubbish and his wine cellar missing supply-...!" Odin paused there when his demon swatted his shoulder with the wooden tray. If the General heard his owner calling him 'whiny' in front of some bordering Lords, he'd be more than reprimanded harshly, he thought.
There were three pairs of shocked eyes blinked in confusion.
"Who are the most suffering subjects in this matter?" Odin asked seriously.
The baby cooed playing with one of the three cups and spilled some water on its foot.
"...-ah..." the Lady sighed in guilt and looked down, ashamed as she felt the Commander knew what she felt.
"Go ask atonement from each of them; and I mean each...!" Odin frowned giving enough pressure to his words without sounding like he was actually forcing them to do it; "I'll give you two months to make everything right!" A condescending smirk, "...or close to right!" he added as a second thought.
"After that, I'll expect you to report yourselves to the Palace, with the baby along, and show your goodwill and constructive actions towards your lands and your people; and probably the General would take pity on you and give you light punishment without anyone has to suffer. But..., if by then things are still in this messy state, than you shall face Master himself, and I don't belief the General would try anything to help your case. How's that sound?"
At three uncomprehending faces directed at him, Odin asked again. "Two months is not enough?"
Then the three people jerked to realization and started to say their questions and answer together.
Odin pulled out his hand again to shut them up in irritation; "Yes or no?"
"Yes!" three voices said in unison. "Definitely yes, Commander...!" the Lady added in relief tears.
Odin studied their faces and decided he was satisfied enough with what he found. "Good!"
"But just for your information..." Odin scratched his chin with one hand as if in contemplation, "I, myself, really hope you'd mess up so I could have my way with you lot before handing you to the General, later." he added in conversational tone, sounding like half-thinking to himself.
The three people paled again and worded their promises of commitment in the same time eventhough Odin already stopped caring about what their voices were saying. He couldn't care less about the frightened people in front of him because his demon was letting out strange air behind him it almost sent chills down his spine.
The sudden interaction with human-strangers might have pulled the demon's strings the wrong way, he thought; he better sent the people -and their soldiers outside- away soon before the demon decided he was hungry.
"Alright, with that settled, I expect you to put your words into actions right away!" Odin closed and stood up, picking the baby with both hands as if it was a bowl and added, "There, kid; pick your parent...!"
The baby cooed in incomprehension as it was lifted from the table and jerked its feet in excitement, knocking down the (new) three cups and jolted happily trying to reach the demon. The room fell silent as Odin narrowed his eyes in irritation, now seemingly started to regret ever having his demon to take the baby; the demon was staring mutely at the falling water from the edge of the table which started to flow on the floor to where he was standing... talking about doing the same work twice for nothing besides more cleaning work.
"...the baby's not wet...!" Odin said flatly trying to smooth out his demon's thought, not bothering to look at the expressions of the other three people there.
"What's the matter?" Odin asked flatly.
The demon acted like he didn't hear the question, presenting his back to his owner to read all by himself.
Odin frowned, "You've been acting strangely since you returned to the living room after the Lady back then... Did something happen?"
His demon didn't look like he cared to give an answer, so he stood up from the dining chair and walked to the demon.
"Heero?"
The demon dodged the man's tilted face trying to see his face, turning to his left with a tray of foods in hands as Odin's hand placed on the kitchen table guarding the exit at his right side. He stood beside the dining table after arranging the food for the man, all the while averting his eyes from the man's examining eyes.
Odin frowned deeper, studied his demon for a while and took his seat back at the dining chair. "Well? Aren't you going to sit down?". The demon didn't eat food like him, but he usually sat with the man companying him through his meal when he was around at such time.
The demon was still silent for several breaths span; "I'm going to see how Lix is doing." he eventually said and left the man without giving him time to react.
The humans and their -unnecessary- troops had gone from the rest house and only left trails and shoe prints on the soft ground around it. He stood in front of the house on the trampled soil and stared down, bent down to straighten a crumpled grass leaf.
"Flying's good." he muttered to himself as he casted his eyes to the rest of the trampled grass and small plants around the house, though it's not like he flew everywhere too just for the sakes of not trampling some greens. "Keep strong." he mumbled to the grass he'd straightened as he wiped the dirt off of it.
The strange black bird from this noon was still on the tree near the resting house and the demon stared at it for a while. Lix had stopped its whistle-dance and now balled contentedly under a big tree beside the house that was big enough to shelter it. He was only using the lizard as an excuse to get out of the house, so he let Lix purring happily alone. Turning his face to the other side of the house he stared at the open scenery of the hills and woods below, he moaned at the void inside him; the hunger he had now was different than the usual, he even felt like he couldn't stand the presence of his owner in the same room... he never felt like that before.
Something's missing... his wings unfurled letting the strong winds caressed them and ran through the soft feathers. His uncovered ears almost could make out the sounds he felt familiar but he didn't really catch them. It was the rustles of his wings feathers at the sides of his ears, he thought.
He closed his eyes, pretending he was hearing whispers known from long ago in the rustling feathers and a familiar weight circling his legs.
"What do you want, Lix?" he asked without opening his eyes.
The lizard was only giving him a light purr and put its muzzle resting on his feet.
They stayed like that for a long time until the snort of Odin's steed pulled them back to reality.
He frowned as the man readied his steed for the journey. "Aren't you going to take the night's rest in the house?"
"Something here made you anxious, so we're going to hit the road and rest in the woods." Odin said without looking at his demon.
"It's almost dusk." he stated flatly.
"So we should find a nice resting area in the woods before dark." Odin reasoned.
He silenced for a while, staring at his busy owner preparing his pack. ". . . are you angry?" he asked because his owner had returned to his usual curt toned speech like they were in the Palace.
"Me?" the man frowned at him with something flashing in his eyes, something he couldn't grasp.
He blinked at the man, and stared silently until he finished packing.
The moon lit up the night sky and thousands stars twinkled in the vast dark-blue canvas up above; there was a ring of halo around the bright moon, eventhough it wasn't full yet; three bright stars lined themselves under the moon. Lix rumbled and shook its body in anticipation.
He glanced at the celestial arrangement above and patted Lix's shoulder twice, knowing its thoughts. Sauria were natural sky-readers, even before demons or humans figured it out and made it as knowledge. "Suffocating, isn't it?" he whispered silently, as if to himself; knowing the lizard's hearing could hear him perfectly.
Lix rumbled low as an answer.
He thinned his lips tightly and pulled the reins, leaning his body forward and urged his lizard to take off.
Odin blinked as the lizard in front of him suddenly shot out and disappeared almost in an instant into the dark woods.
"Hey, Heero...!" he called out trying to calm his horse as it was surprised by the lizard's whipping tail when it fled. Once the horse in his control again, he urged it to chase the fleeing lizard along with its rider on its back.
The man tsk-ed when he realized the paths they took were not the usual paths travelers used; he didn't even know there were other paths along his way, almost hidden by crumbled giant rocks and sometimes fallen trees or covering shrubs. Those paths looked old enough to be abandoned long before he was even born. He gritted his teeth and trusted his steed to chase the lizard's tracks using its instinct. But he knew that if some monsters or demons showed up in large pack then he wouldn't be able to fend himself without losing the lizard's track.
A thought came to his mind; his demon treaded these paths as if he was familiar with the area, perhaps he was here before... but this deep in the human's territory?
Oh, that's right; he never probed his demon about how he was ended in the Palace, he thought it might upset him and the demon would create a defensive wall between them. Maybe he was playing it safe, but now he was thinking that he should at least knew what had really happened with his demon before they met.
A loud cry of an animal made him jump and reflexively pulled the reins. The cry was hoarse and almost croak-like, but it wasn't from a bird of any kind like he'd ever heard. There were more than one and sounded like they were travelling in the air and getting far; Odin loosened his grip on the sword-handle slowly. His steed kicked the dirt a couple times and bobbed its head, seemingly minded to make a sound; he rubbed the horse's neck calming it down, while checking his surroundings.
The trees were high and aged; vines grew abundantly and covered most of everything like a giant green tent. Most travelers would stop there fearing what were hiding behind the thick tent and turned around. Odin frowned at the scenery. To him it almost looked like a giant cauldron of green soup was poured over the area from the top of the ancient trees, and the green soup had flowed down covering the soil. The thought gave him a recalled image, Heero was taking a couple of steps back avoiding the flowing water from the table as it pooled on the floor and 'chasing' his feet.
He hmph-ed to himself; was that it? Perhaps something that made him reminded of this place. He smirked then, and chased that thought away from his mind; as if his demon was that melancholic over some spilled water. He urged his steed to go into the thick covering of the vines, using his sword to clear up some branches from their way; to his relief, the walk through the thick vines wasn't that long, while he was concentrating on clearing the way he'd forgotten the time somewhat and was surprise when a bright light reflected on his face.
The steed snorted long in relief.
Lix pulled its head up as if anticipating their arrival.
Odin narrowed his eyes and stared at the lounging lizard for some breaths span. Sheathed his sword back and got down from his horse; he blinked and used a hand above his eyes to shield them from the bright reflection. His left brow arched in surprise and curiosity.
"How the hell did you know something like this existed in this place?" he asked the lizard, which put down its head on the ground in front of its bent front legs again without answering in any way. Odin stared at Lix with a deeper frown; it looked subdued for some reason. He snorted and walked forward.
The cliff wall was high and daunting, standing grandly like a forgotten guardian from a far away time. The cliff was unseen from the clearing before the green tent vines area because the people's point of view was blocked by the high aged trees, and the structure of the mountain scenery didn't give any footing to view it from a higher point at the surrounding area at large.
His feet followed the narrow path between the jutting rocks and crystals; some crystal's surfaces reflected the moonlight to his face and he had to close his eyes as he passed them, minding to not tripped on the smaller crystals protruding from the rock floor. If any hunters or merchants knew this place, they wouldn't hold back and take everything; he thought as he measured the sizes of the jutting crystals. Raw as they were but already reflecting such small amount of light into bright sun-worthy shines.
He grinned at his own reflection on a mirror-like surface of a red crystal twice his height.
"...these will put any king's crown jewels into shame...!" he muttered somewhat overwhelmed by the place.
A clear and endless soft ringing sound brought his mind back from the crystals; he followed the path while his ears trying to catch that whisper-like ring and stopped as a wall of clear crystal presented to him inside the layers of rock of the cliff wall. His mind paused for another crazy-journey wondering if the whole cliff was actually made of crystal under its rock-surface; how much of a fortune would that be...? But he instantly ignored it, he wasn't really into collecting material items like most others, and decided to follow his instinct stepping into the narrow opening between the crystal layers, amazed at the toughness of the crystal substance as it managed to rip his iron shoulder armor open like it was made of thin paper when his muscular body somehow got caught in the narrow passage.
He was about to let out some curses out loud when he realized his snorted sigh was reverberated in the crystal cave and came back as booming gusting sound that made him jump.
"Ow, dammit...!" Odin covered his ears reflexively and realized his voice wasn't reverberated that loud in the cave. His brows shot up and his curiosity made him have to try blowing some air, which he regretted soon when the cave returned it back as a howling gale.
'...it's wind...!' he thought as he pushed himself through; most probably what had caused his demon to act unusual today, remembering the strong wind around the rest house area. His human hearing couldn't pick up the difference in the sound of gusting winds, so he wouldn't realize if some wind had some effects more than others.
Right after he finished his thought, a set of rippling lights reflected in the crystals caught his eyes. His cheeks felt a cool breeze passing through and as he walked into a round clearing he saw the sky presenting the glorious moon far above his head as the cafe roof gave a circular-opening like a large window. Looking down he found a small pond with dripping water from a curved crystal's tip above it; a single water bead dripped occasionally made the mesmerizing sounds throughout the cave. A gentle breeze blew from the opening of the rock cliff walls down the crystal tunnel and made that endless ringing sound, soft as a whisper, but perhaps loud enough for a lizard's ears. Or a demon's ears, for that matter; Odin frowned again as he found his demon balled himself in some sheltered corner.
Sitting down near the demon, he let time passed by while staring up at the bright moon until the rumbling of his stomach reminded him that he was a hungry mortal even in the seemingly timeless place like that one. He was sure his demon knew he was there, so he decided to go back to where his horse was waiting for him and made some dinner for himself outside the cave.
The horse grazed on some grass near him after he unloaded its burden, and he was almost had a jaw-drop when his horse huddled together with the lizard afterward. ". . . when did you get so close to each other like that?" he muttered and knew that his horse too could pick up what his human ears couldn't in that place.
"Right, it's kind of cold tonight, I'll let you borrow this..." he said as he covered the horse's back with one of his blankets he had. "You okay there, Lesard?"
Lix only gave him a lazy rumble in return.
Odin snorted; "What's with your rider, anyway... suddenly gotten his solitary streak kicking in such a journey...!" he mumbled while heading back into the crystal cave.
After washing up a little by the small pond, he hung his shirt on a crystal end and covered himself with two thick blankets.
"Heero, come here!" he said flatly, knowing the demon would crave for his body heat and come to him without needing to be ordered to, but he was a little worried that his demon acted like that; if he didn't know better he'd say that the demon was sulking.
Hell, he was sulking; his mind retorted.
Sulking over what? For some reason he was angry that he didn't know the cause.
"Heero...!" his voice had finality to it, he wouldn't call out again, whether his demon came to him or not.
Odin reflexively counted the time until his demon moved, it was almost a full minute, but he waited patiently. Heero loosened his hands from hugging his legs, slowly, as if fighting his own rejection of doing so. Lifted his head from his bent knees and then paused; after taking some time he stood up slowly and took off his jacket and Odin's baggy shirt he still obediently had, discarded them uncaringly to the cave floor and stood in front of his owner with face casted down waiting for an order.
Odin didn't say anything more and just opened his arms for him; Heero looked almost like he was falling to his knees and as the man covered him with his arms and blankets the man jumped in reflex.
"Shhh-t, you're COLD!" he tightened his muscles against the cold and instinctively rubbed his demon's body with both hands; "There's no way you're okay; what's wrong?" Odin pulled the demon at arm-length with a hand but he struggled to get in contact with the man's warm body and ended up hugging him tightly with both hands digging at the man's back.
Odin frowned at his behavior, Heero was never active in showing his needs, which freely translated as the demon never hug him back even when he was starving for his life energy or just body warmth. And after cohabiting for such long years with such arrangement, to actually finding him this desperate to get something from him made him worried. As if proving his thought, the demon's fingers sluggishly clawed at his back, and he could hear the demon's sharp teeth grated on each other as he nervously pushed his forehead on and off against his left shoulder.
Or more like his neck. Odin thinned his lips as he felt Heero randomly nuzzled his neck and shoulder, though it seemed that he was fighting himself not to; if suddenly his demon developed his hunger for flesh or blood then he had to keep him away from the Palace. They'd slaughter him there.
He sighed and noticed that it didn't reflected back by the crystal walls.
"Heero..." he began carefully but with a steady voice, realizing that his demon's body was now trembling and he was moaning in pain every now and then; ". . . are you hungry for something more than just vital force or body warmth?"
His demon let out a long suppressed moan in rejection; it had sounded really suffering to him, so he tightened his embrace around the demon's small trembling body, willing his life energy to push through the cold pale skin but realizing the demon's body temperature only turned colder; if the demon himself rejecting to take his life energy, then he couldn't do anything about it.
". . . . . . . . . -fe . . ."
The demon mumbled something very silently between his teeth-grating and he'd missed that; "What?"
His instinct was alarmed when the demon instantly stilled. Odin held his breath.
"...LIFE!" the demon barked, and it reflected in a boom in the crystal cave; Odin almost jumped but the demon's hands clawing at his upper arms stopped him.
"What...-Life? ...female...-!" the demon continued in broken sentence; "...spouting insult...-?"
The man silenced, already grasping the situation; seemingly the Darque Lady had spoken something she didn't realize as a harm to the demon; while the demon, unusually, had taken it to heart. He glanced at the demon's trembling hands gripping at his upper arms, he was sure they'd leave bruises and welts there, perhaps on his back too. He made a note to hide them from his demon later when he's back to his senses again; because contrary to common's belief, the demon had a gentler heart even more than the gentlest human he'd ever met.
Well, at least he was half-relief that his demon wasn't developing hunger for flesh or blood.
"-Where... Life? ...-Mine...!" the demon pleaded and started to tremble again, butting his forehead onto the man's bare chest.
"Life not here...!" the demon snapped his face up facing Odin, and the man widened his eyes. "Not here! ...Life no here! -Mine...!"
He was crying...
"Heero...!" Odin was a little shaken, feeling the demon's forehead hitting his chest over and over; it actually hurt, considering the demon's energy flow was different than of humans. "Hey... calm down!"
The demon was crying tearlessly.
That's something he'd never seen; something he never actually thought he'd ever see.
"-Mine...! Where...?" the demon stopped butting his head when Odin hugged him tightly willing him to stop; but now his hands were clawing at his back again. "Where Life...? Give baack...! -Miiine...!"
"Heero..."
"Give Mine...! Wheeere...?"
Odin frowned grimly and tried rocking their bodies slowly. He didn't understand what this was about, but he knew his demon was desperate enough to let himself breaking down before him.
"Where Liiiife...? -Minnnne? ...give back...!"
"Liiife...! Give Mine back..."
"...-Miiine...!"
Not long the demon lost his strength and lied limply in the man's arms and blankets; sometimes he'd called out the word 'mine' voicelessly. After a long time not hearing that whisper anymore, Odin loosened his embrace thinking that the demon had fallen asleep and was surprised finding his eyes were open, staring back at him when he stared down. The demon's deep blue eyes had lost their color and turned like a shaded mirror, he could see his face reflected perfectly in them.
Odin broke his embrace then, intending to move his demon to a more comfortable position, and found the red-lines on his body had faded and turned a light grey color. He didn't know exactly what the red-lines meant, but he knew it had something to do with some demonic engagement or something like fidelity, something that had given him the will to survive. When they'd reach the Palace he made a note to look into it; he didn't really count on them but perhaps the ancient library books had something about Heero's-kind of demons. At least he thought the red-lines were of a spell or something alike.
"...I'm here; you can take as much of my life as you want...!" he said to his demon.
To his surprise the demon blinked slowly at him. So he was actually conscious, or nearly-conscious; he thought, and rearranged his demon's body to be more comfortable and was relief when he realized that his body wasn't as cold as before, and watched his glazed eyes blinked tiredly for a couple more times before he stopped moving altogether.
Odin sighed, the cave returned it as a whistling breeze; he decided he didn't mind the random sounds of that place and smirked to himself, then closed his demon's eyelids using his right palm. Somehow he felt like holding a dead body in his arms; he got that feeling sometimes, that's why he'd become a really light-sleeper, because his body was becoming sensitive to the slightest movement the demon made when they're sleeping together...because his body was anticipating his demon to move; so that he knew that his demon was still going to not-dead on him in the morning.
"...the Lesard is worried about you too, you know?" Odin muttered examining his demon's face, then decided he'd keep watch until morning; but soon after that the dripping sound of the water and the whistling ring of the gentle breeze in that place lulled him to sleep too.
It was the various fragrances filling the air that woke him; the first thing he realized was the glassy-looking air, odd enough the over-abundance of light didn't hurt his eyes. It wasn't sunlight; it was as if the air itself was glowing.
His fever's down.
The mattress was really, really soft it amazed him.
The leaves made gentle whispers as the breeze passed through them.
There were soft cottony seeds travelling in the wind.
It was nothing like he'd ever seen before... this...everything. He wondered whether he'd really died and was sent to heaven.
A pair of white wings answered his thought above his head; flapping a couple times and spread in full glory. Funny, he thought snakes don't have wings...
A cool palm cupped his left cheek; he shifted his wondering eyes to the owner of that hand.
Long flowing white robe that was shining in the light.
Four ends of long mufflers that were appearing to be dancing in a ceaseless imaginary wind.
He thought he could see a real halo circling above the brown head above him.
Then, that calming gentle smile blinded his eyes.
There was a kind voice saying something his ears couldn't catch as sleep came claiming his consciousness back. But he vowed to himself he'd remember that voice forever...
Odin opened his eyes, he was instantly awake.
The memory was fresh like it was happened in the near past, he's used to seeing it over and over again; but the last part was too clear for his mind to ignore, not when he was worried about the passive body he held in his arms now.
Thinking of which..., he looked down and found Heero's deep blue eyes were staring dimly at his face; there was something akin to jealousy flashed in his eyes before he burrowed his face on Odin's broad chest and covered his head with the blankets.
Odin blinked.
That dazzlingly smiling-face in his dream was undeniably Heero's; though he never saw Heero broke a smile even once... sometime when the demon thought no one's around, he'd smile a small yearning smile to the winds or the stars, but never to anyone. What had caused his demon to lose that smile, his mind was longing to find that out, but he couldn't ask outright.
"...so..." he decided he should at least try something; "...'care to tell me what this was about?"
A long silence answered him, then a mumbled "Shut up and rest." actually made the man chuckled amusedly.
Usually his demon would give him the silent-treatment when he didn't want to answer nor to care, but to actually say something bordering to an order back at him meant he was about to cross the demon's line.
Well, the man didn't care much about authority as long as no one's dying.
"Say, Demon..." Odin smiled, "I'm done with checking my border-men task; do you have anywhere else you want to go to after this?"
The demon peeked one of his eyes from under the blankets, giving his owner the accusing stare.
Odin smirked; "Alright, there was something more I was told to check out, but I could do it more efficiently without you needing my body in the process...!"
The demon blinked at the words said to him. It might as well sounded like 'stop clinging to me when I have a job to do' or something alike, but his experience cohabiting with the man made his mind easily translate it as 'let's go sightseeing somewhere while the Palace pays for the journey'; and he wasn't impressed.
"I could use the distraction in the Palace, but the wilderness kind of inviting my human-nature, you know?" the man arched one of his brows suggestively.
The demon's brows lifted about a millimeter and then drooped with almost a patronizing stare. "If you want to visit a brothel, I'll guard the door to your room." And his mind pictured that saying 'By the name of the Palace, clear the VIP room...!' with a level face in some border-brothel would actually make the General (or the Master, for that matter) literally rolling on the Palace floor, laughing; but not some opposing dignitaries, they're hard to please as always.
Odin made a frowning face at that; "What made you think that...?"
The demon stared at him oddly, "...you want babies too, right?"
Odin blinked. The answer was beyond his expectation, though he thought as much about the demon. He examined his demon's face with an open stare, actually feeling glad when the demon looked like he was bothered by the scrutiny and hid his face again.
"Hoo..." he muttered with delightful tone.
"Hey, Demon..." he said silkily, "...you're just homesick." he accused openly.
There was no answer.
After waiting long enough and satisfied with the no-answer answer, Odin chuckled gladly and put his worries down for the moment. He wondered if babies had anything to do with triggering this happening, but he decided not to dig too deep for now; although the consciousness deep within his mind longed to see that dazzling smile again, soon if not now...
Saru's note:
sorry for the absent; work's been hectic... should be grateful that the editor gave us more various genres of novels to be illustrated, it's just that comic-work's been suspended for too long and more various works means saru will need more time adjusting to the rhythm OTL
thanx to Cuzosu and Libsrevenge for the review, your comments gave saru the energy to write, because it's fulfilling knowing that all those time spent writing are not for nothing. heheh